Sitting at the top of the polls, neck and neck with Mitt Romney, Herman Cain spoke at a local Tea Party event last night. Nearly 4,000 people came out to see the pizza mogul turned presidential hopeful.

Cain, known as the “Hermanator” to his friends, treated the crowed to a speech that had them waiving flags and shouting their support. Shouts of “Save us Cain” and cheers for Cain’s flat tax plan, known as the 999 Plan, which would scrap the current tax code and replace it with a 9 percent business, individual and national sales tax, could be heard throughout the night.

Cain’s rise in popularity has coincided with Texas Governor Rick Perry’s recent dive in the polls. Perry shot up in the polls when he first announced his candidacy but poor showings at Republican debates sent the Texas Governor into a tail spin.

The race to be the Republican nominee now looks to be between Cain and Romney but, of course, there is still plenty of time left for that to change. Perry, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul and all the other candidates can still charge up from behind.

To keep up with the all the ups and downs in the presidential race the folks at Slate.com, an online current affairs magazine, have conveniently created this horse race view of the campaign. You can keep up with every surge and stumble.

Ron Paul can’t seem to catch a break. A tireless campaigner, he has decided not to run for reelection to his congressional seat to concentrate on a presidential bid. He came in second at the Iowa straw poll. Despite all that, all anyone wants to talk about is Rick Perry or Michelle Bachmann or Mitt Romney.

Paul supporters are complaining the media is ignoring their candidate. Jon Stewart even joined in wondering why Paul is getting no love from the media.

One reader of The Daily News even suggests media outlets are working together to purposefully shun Paul and manipulate public opinion.

Is the presidential candidate from Surfside really being ignored to help some other candidate?

An interesting Pew Research Center study shows that Paul is getting a much smaller portion of the media pie. According to the study, there are more stories written about people like Sarah Palin, who is not even in the race, or Gov. Rick Perry, who only jumped in a little over a week ago, than about Paul.

So is that proof of some sort of media conspiracy? Probably not.

As fun as conspiracy theories are, this one is simply just not true. Getting a single newsroom full of editors and reporters to agree on anything from what to order for lunch to what is the most important story of the day can be difficult enough.

Getting an entire nation full of newspapers, radio shows, magazines and broadcast and cable news programs to somehow agree to ignore one particular candidate seems a bit far fetched. (Listen to Brooke Gladstone, host of NPR’s radio show, On the Media, talking about her new book, The Influencing Machine, that explores how the media works.)

A simpler answer to why Paul doesn’t show up on TV screens as much as his opponents could be that he isn’t as exciting to watch as they are. Sure he does inspire passion in his loyal fans. People know him. He’s run before and he’s railed against the Federal government since before it was popular. (ProPublica has collected a wonderful assortment of profiles and articles on Paul). But the problem may be that Paul has been that way for a long time).

Media outlets don’t care so much about who wins and who loses an election. What most reporters and editors want is for people to listen, watch and read their stories.

Paul’s problem is not an evil media conspiracy. It could be something much worse. It could simply be that he isn’t as sexy and exciting as a wild-eyed Minnesotan or a tough talking Texas Governor.

A crop of candidates has popped up each hoping to be the person that steps into U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s shoes once she retires. And while the election is still more than a year away, some of those candidates will be in the Galveston County area today trying to impress voters.

A north county conservative group, the Clear Lake Tea Party, is hosting what members call a “job interview” for senatorial candidates today at 6 p.m. in the Bayou Theater of the University of Houston – Clear Lake campus, 2700 Bay Area Blvd.

Before the formal “interview,” candidates are scheduled to be in League City at La Brisa, 501 N. Wesley, for an informal meet and greet from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Organizers of the event say the confirmed candidates include Glenn Addison, Andrew Castanuela, Ted Cruz, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Thomas Leppert, Lela Mae Pittenger.

The list includes some prominent political figures: Leppert, the former mayor of Dallas, Jones, a rail road commissioner and Cruz, the former solicitor general. But it is missing one big name — David Dewhurst, the current lieutenant governor.

You can watch the event via this live feed.

Will you be at the event or watching from home?